“How we got over….You know my soul looks back and wonder, how we got over.”
Oh, I love spirituals. I love them in any tempo, and anywhere. I find myself immersed in the message of the song and wonder how my pre-Civil War ancestors reacted when they heard certain tunes.
Well, I was recently given the opportunity to reflect while I enjoyed a stage production filled with a variety of spiritual selections sung in the stage play “Gee’s Bend” which was recently performed at the New Stage Theater in Jackson. The production was filled with historical facts and spiritual songs, all done a cappella, and delivered in such a heart rendering fashion that it made those of us in the audience feel as if we had been transported to another era (through the voices of the play’s singers).
If Gee’s Bend ever returns to Jackson, I suggest that it be a “must-do” on everyone’s calendar, especially if you did not see it during its first run here. It is also worthy of a repeat visit for those who attended the recent performance. This is one of the best musical performances that I’ve seen in quite some time.
Now we all know that spirituals are actually songs that began as a means of communication for the slaves’ while they were busy in their designated work areas. The song form was used so that the overseers would not be able to interpret the actual message that was being passed between the slaves. Following the Civil War, spirituals continued to be sung at churches and today have infiltrated gospel music at every tempo.
The recent production was a very timely one because it ran January 27 – February 8, highlighting some historical moments of the Civil Rights struggle. The period of the play spans between 1939 through 2000, and is set in Gee’s Bend, Alabama.
The story of “Gee’s Bend” relives the descendants of the slaves of the original Gee’s Bend plantation. Following the Civil War, many of those who lived on the plantation chose to remain in the area to work the land as tenant farmers. Although the descendants were free men and women, debts to their white land owner caused them to lose many of the possessions they had acquired over the years.
The area was once identified as the poorest county in America.
Electricity, indoor plumbing and telephone lines did not reach Gee’s Bend until the 1960s and 70s. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. visited the area in 1965, during the peak of the Civil Rights struggle, stood in one of the local churches and exclaimed to all who were present “I came to Gee’s Bend to tell you, you are somebody.” Following his visit, many of the Gee’s Bend residents registered to vote (for the first time) and even joined him in the Selma to Montgomery marches.
Gee’s Benders depended on the local ferry to transport them across the Alabama River to the nearby city of Camden for school and other necessities but local law enforcement discontinued the ferry in 1962 in hopes of curtailing the civil advances that the citizens were making. The ferry did not resume until 2006.
During the 1960s, an Episcopal priest purchased and sold several of the quilts that the women of the area made over the years as a means to provide warmth to their families. The quilts, unique in its patterns because of the isolated area where the quilters resided, were eventually sold in major department stores and later quilts were put on display at art museums in Houston, Texas, and New York, New York.
The actors: Tarra McGowan-Riggs, Jay Ward and Gloria Winters-Anderson all residents of metro Jackson; and Sharon Miles, of Hattiesburg, gave dynamic performances.
As I look back and wonder, I see how wonderful productions like this one explain to us all “how we got over.”
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